


Enigma

by Transposable_Element



Category: Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
Genre: Codes & Ciphers, Ficlet, Gen, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-06
Updated: 2014-09-06
Packaged: 2018-02-16 07:34:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2261277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Transposable_Element/pseuds/Transposable_Element
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>4 March, 1941, Lofoten Islands</p><p>Number 4 Commando's first operation is a success.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Enigma

**Author's Note:**

> I initially posted this as a coda to "After Dunkirk" but then decided that it didn't really work, so decided to post it separately. Sorry for any confusion.

Operation Claymore was such a complete success that it was almost anti-climactic. Tom was on the _Somali_ , just finishing his report to the ops commanders on the Svolvær landing, when the ship’s signals operator, Lt. Warmington, came in. He reported that the armed trawler _Krebs_ had been disabled and beached. “One of the officers threw something overboard before we could get to him, sir. Obviously something they didn’t want us to get hold of. Request a party of a few men to make a thorough search of the ship.” Tom, who had no further duties aboard the _Somali_ , found himself assigned to the search party.

They started on the lower decks and worked their way up, but they found nothing very interesting until they reached the captain’s cabin. Tom found one drawer of the captain's big metal desk locked, and he and Warmington struggled to open it. Neither of them was much good at picking locks, so finally Warmington told Tom to cover his face and proceeded to shoot the lock. 

In the drawer they found several disks made of metal and rubber, about 4 inches across. Each was composed of a larger, gearlike piece attached to a smooth ring with a single notch, etched around the edge with letters. Opposite the smooth ring was a ring of pins: electrical contacts. Warmington whistled.

“Do you know what those are, Dudgeon?”

“I think so. A friend of mine drew me a picture once.” Tom tried to remember what Dick had told him about Enigma machines and how they worked.

“Well, now we know what the man threw overboard,” said Warmington. “Damn! These rotors may be useful to somebody, though, even without the machine. Look around and see if you can find anything that looks like a code book.” They searched the desk thoroughly and found some papers that looked like cipher keys. In the end, they stacked up all the papers in the desk and tied them up to avoid losing any loose sheets. “Go see if you can find something waterproof to wrap these in,” said Warmington. “It wouldn’t do to get these wet.”

“Yes, sir,” said Tom.

“Don’t mention these to anybody,” said Warmington, as Tom started searching the captain’s locker. 

“Of course not, sir. Look, here’s a slicker. Do you think it will do?”

 “Yes. Hand it over here. Somebody is going to be very happy to get a crack at these!”

**Author's Note:**

> Operation Claymore: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Claymore
> 
> During Operation Claymore, one of the first British commando operations, Lt. Sir Marshall Warmington of the _HMS Somali_ retrieved Engima rotors and other cipher materials from the trawler _Krebs_. (Other than that, I made up all the details.) As far as I can tell, this was extremely useful to the code breakers, though not definitive in breaking the code.


End file.
